Right to the Edge
by fazzems
Summary: For kiki1592’s Maximum Ride challenge... faxness --- "Fang," I said in a warning tone, my voice curving higher as I said his name, sounding not-in-the-least bit as threatening as I'd meant it to sound. -No longer a One-Shot-
1. Right to the Edge

**Disclaimer: Maximum Ride is not mine. However, if Fang ever needs a place to stay...**

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**Right to the Edge**

I walked to the edge of the water, staring at the rippling waves in silence. The water was a deathly black, deep enough that nothing underneath could be seen at all. I leaned over the pier, seeing fragments of my reflection scattered by the waves before reforming and shattering again. I almost snorted at myself, feeling poetic and all. However, reality came crashing back, kicking and screaming for attention as I sighed, slowly lowering myself down to sit, dipping the tip of my toes in the cold lake.

Deep in thought, the hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stood on end, and I closed my eyes.

"Hey," I murmured.

"Hey," I heard the returning whisper of Fang, "What're you doing out here? Brooding? Trying to scare away the fish with bad vibes?"

I snorted and turned to face him, "Hardly. I'm just thinking."

"About…?" he trailed off.

"Nothing," I rolled my eyes, patting the spot next to me.

Honestly, that was what I was trying to convince myself. That the reason why I was ready to beat myself over the head with an overgrown twig wasn't because he was frustrating me to no end. No, of course not. I wasn't thinking about his timid touches, small grins, and I most definitely wasn't thinking about the corny little butterflies fluttering in my stomach even at this very moment as he plopped down next to me. I tried to make my mind blank, my face unreadable as he smirked at me.

"Hmmph, didn't think that was possible for the all-knowing Maximum Ride," he grinned teasingly, "But I suppose everybody has their weaknesses."

"And yours?" I faced him, curious now.

But he only shrugged, looking up at the few stars in the sky.

I gulped suddenly, biting my lip as the full moon shone down, silhouetting half of his face, but at the same time reflecting off the water and making him look brighter than ever.

I didn't notice I was grinning goofily and ogling him until he turned back and chuckled at me. I sobered up, blushing as he – in a brotherly gesture I'm sure – put his arm around my shoulders.

I tensed up immediately as he suddenly leaned in, our faces just millimeters apart.

I held my breath as he opened his mouth to say something, my eyes as wide as a garden gnome's. Oh god, not this again.

I was about to politely shove him away and maybe make a dramatic exit by taking off into the sky, when his grin grew bigger.

"Max, look," he said innocently, turning his face slightly to nod towards to water's edge.

Grabbing the opportunity to escape the eyes that were captivating mine, I hastily turned away, cracking my neck from the fast turn. I leaned over the water, looking for what Fang had pointed out, half-afraid that an revenge-seeking fish angry about the bad vibes would suddenly pop out and scare the be-jeebers out of me.

"I don't see anyth-" I started, but paused as I felt an arm encircle my waist.

"Fang," I said in warning, my voice curving higher as I said his name, sounding not-in-the-least bit as threatening as I had meant it to sound.

Then, suddenly, I broke into an embarrassingly girly scream.

No, not because I was afraid.

No, because the water was rushing up to my face; or, more logically, vice-versa

An electric shock went through my body as the cold water surrounded me, bubbles flying furiously from my mouth.

"Gahh - flippin' COLD!" I thrashed furiously, my voice amounting only to mere bubbles.

That little… ugh! I didn't even have the brain capacity to think of a suitable and strong enough insult, my mind was swarming with fury so strong that I was ready to punch Fang out. He had _pushed_ me in!

Ohh, and was he going to get it.

Right after I found which way the surface was, of course.

But right then, I was still a little busy trying to open my eyes underwater and locate the surface. Meanwhile, I was feeling colder. Freezing, actually. What was this, glacier water?

"UGH!" I screamed underwater, which was not a very smart thing to do, seeing as a few precious air bubbles streamed out of my mouth and bubbled up to the surface, leaving me almost breathless.

If I didn't drown, I was probably going to die of hypothermia. Thanks for that, Fang.

Finally, I managed to thrash and struggle my way upward, my head finally breaking the surface. Immediately, I sucked in three huge breaths of sweet air, relief overpowering the anger.

I didn't even hear the loud splash in the background, as helpful the knowledge would have probably been.

But not for long was the relief to stay with me. As soon as my breath had returned, my eyes turned to stone.

"FANG!" I shouted as loud as I could, only just managing to suppress a strangled cry of surprise as something grasped my ankle.

I took another huge breath and held it as I was yanked underwater, my eyes still open and blazing.

Through the blurriness, I could still see the dark form of Fang, the moonlight from above managing to brighten up the depths of the water.

I felt like slapping him, yelling at him, and kissing him all at the same.

Wait.

No.

That wasn't right.

I pushed the last thought from my mind and instead fulfilled my wish and swam forward, resting my hands gently on his chest. First a look of confusion crossed over his face, then mock-horror as I attempted to push him while underwater.

Trust me, it was much harder than you'd think.

Instead of flying 10 feet back and hitting, say, maybe a brick wall or something, he was only pushed about an inch backward.

He chuckled, which was a huge mistake, ran out of breath, and shot to the surface of the water again.

Realizing although I did have amazingly strong lungs, I was half-bird, not half-fish; I definitely didn't have any gills.

But I did manage to dog-paddle like an ungraceful idiot to the surface.

When I was up top, I treaded water and attempted to glare at Fang at the same time.

"What the h was that for!?" I demanded, "I'm going to _kill_ you!"

"That's a bit melodramatic," he grinned, cool and collected. And as if daring me to kill him, he added flippantly, "I thought we'd go swimming."

My eyes widened considerably, hysteria clouding my vision.

"SO YOU THOUGHT YOU'D PUSH ME IN TO A FREEZING COLD LAKE!?" I shouted, waking up a good portion of the whole forest.

Fang's face contorted up for a second, as if he finally realized he probably should've thought that one through.

A freezing cold, furious, wet Max was probably not on his list of things to see before he died.

Unless it really was. Had he planned out his own death? Or was he just incredibly stupid? I'm guessing the latter.

Fang shrugged his shoulders, "What else was there to do?"

"Oh, hmm, let me think!" I mused angrily, "Oh, um, I don't know… maybe not be in a lake!?"

Still kicking with his legs, Fang let his arms drop to his side, a look of hesitation crossing his face.

What was he thinking?

Suddenly, his face blew up with unnecessary confidence, but his eyes softened considerably.

He brought his hands up and rested them on my shoulders.

For a horrifying second I thought he was going to try to use me as a lifeboat and try to push me under the water while staying above. Seriously, I'd heard about somebody who had accidentally drowned somebody who had swam out to save them by pushing them down and trying to stay afloat. But what happened next caught me off guard.

For the second time that night, he leaned in towards me, his eyes searching mine as he pressed his forehead against mine.

"W-w-what…" I spluttered like a fool, my mind working on overdrive.

Why was he doing this? Why was he doing this to me? Why couldn't we just be BFF? Why couldn't time rewind to a time five years ago when I had thought boys had cooties? That was fine, nothing like this happened.

I didn't want this.

But as his lips began their slow decent towards mine I realized something.

I really did.

I hated the feeling he gave me; how even a dark room could be brightened up by his smile, as cliché as it sounded. How the butterflies even at this moment still fluttered in my stomach, my stupid habit of blushing when he got too-close-for-comfort. And yet, I loved the feeling too.

And I definitely hated myself for loving it. For loving him.

Which, of course, I had to keep denying so I could keep a firm hold on my sanity.

Just as his lips brushed mine, I jerked away, my eyes flying open.

As much as I wanted to press my lips back to his, I resisted, dead set on keeping my sanity.

How much more out-of-control and rocky could our relationship get if this happened? It was bad enough that we had kissed already, what, three times? Once on the beach. Then in the cave. Then on… the other pier.

And I couldn't help but think of how much I wanted to do it again. Maybe just one more time.

"Oops," I murmured lowly, but his eyes slid closed in frustration.

Maybe that had been a mistake, pulling away…

Perhaps another kiss-and-never-talk-about-it wouldn't hurt.

So I decided that if he tried to kiss me again… maybe this time I'd let him.

But something inside of him, Fang, had decided that it wasn't worth it, and he released my from his grasp. I felt so overwhelmed by the feeling of disappointment that washed over me that I almost stopped kicking.

I watched, frozen by shock, as Fang simply swam away, giving up that quick.

I wanted to shout after him, but my pride wouldn't let me.

And I just watched. Watched as my love swam away from me.

I had run away from him countless times before, but I had only been trying to protect myself… protect our friendship, the flock, from the pain. But when I had jerked away, I had only seen the hurt in his eyes, and I realized that within protecting myself, I was hurting him.

And suddenly I couldn't deny it anymore.

Screw sanity, I needed Fang. I couldn't take it anymore. Fang was much much better than sanity. Heck, he _was_ my sanity.

I opened my mouth to scream after him, but he had already reached the sandy shore, stepping out of the water. Even from this distance I could hear the water practically pouring off of him and onto the sand, my mind screaming for him to turn around and come back.

He looked back out towards the lake, running a hand through his hair, staring at my still form in the water.

Then, he turned and took a slow stride away from the water's edge, and I felt my heart breaking with every step he took.

Finally, I managed to take control of my body again and swam as fast and silently as I could, racing after Fang. I pulled myself out of the water, feeling my clothes droops and drip galleons of water. The breeze nipped at any exposed skin and I shivered, waiting where I stood, ankle-deep in the water. I watched hesitantly as Fang tense and stopped walking as he heard me stand.

Feeling as though I weighed a million pounds, I managed to drag myself across the sand, wet, cold, and numb, but determined.

At the sound of my sloshing footsteps, Fang inclined his head over his shoulder just in time to see me launch myself at him, grabbing both of his shoulders and turning his towards me as I tackled him to the ground, my lips connected with his the whole time.

I kissed him long and hard, but Fang was too shocked to respond, and simply lied there and took it. Hurt and confused, I opted to pull away, but Fang put both hands on either side of my cheeks, bringing my lips back down to his, kissing me fiercely.

"I… love you," I whispered between kisses, sighing contentedly as he pulled me even tighter.

Fang smiled against my lips, and made a sound that sounded along the lines of, "I love you too," except more like, "Mmm hmmmm hmmm hmm…"

Which, considerably, was good enough for me. I'd take it.


	2. Returning to the Scene of the Crime

Hey, it's me again, back with another chapter. Two people put me on alert (though I didn't understand why at first, it was just a one-shot), so I decided to write another chapter when inspiration struck me. I think this'll be a three-shot, so be expecting another chapter after this, much fax included.  
Anywho, this chapter isn't nearly as original as the first, but bear with me. I'll try to keep Max and everybody in character, so please don't come after me with pitchforks if they're not.

Soo, thanks for the review (I'm expecting more, mwaha).

**Disclaimer: Maximum Ride is not mine... though I wouldn't mind borrowing Fang for a bit.**

_P.S. If you were supposed to judge this story for Kiki's challenge, don't include this chapter when you're judging my story!_

_P.P.S. Enjoy!_

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**Chapter 2: Returning to the Scene of the Crime**

After a considerable amount of time spent kissing, we were both still on the shore of the lake, the sand between our toes (and in our hair, on our clothes etc. etc.), watching the sun peek over the horizon and casting an orange-yellow glow over the sky as it gently rose higher.

Unfortunately, we both knew the horrible dreaded question that hung in the air, but none of us wanted to break the peaceful silence. I knew we'd have to get back to the flock sooner or later, and I chose sooner, just to be safe.

So I did it, I just asked.

"How are we going to tell the Flock?"

Fang's eyes crinkled in distaste as he turned to look at me, grimacing, "You mean they have to know?"

I pursed my lips, contemplating his few words of wisdom. After a few seconds of silence, I started slowly, "I suppose they don't really _have_ to know..."

"-But they'd _want_ to," Fang finished for me.

I bobbed my head up and down once, looking unsure, "But _how_ exactly will we do it?"

"We could be mysterious about it," Fang began, brushing a few stray strands of hair off of my face and tucking it behind my ear, looking at my slyly, "just show random displays of affection. They'd get the hint."

I looked at him with much doubt, trying to imagine holding Fang's hand in front of the flock without feeling awkward, or even flirting with him. Neither option held much appeal.

I gave him a look that displayed my obvious lack of enthusiasm.

"Or we could just push them into the lake and hold their heads under…" Fang snorted, watching my expression harden, "Oh, no wait, wrong plan. That was with Iggy." Fang saved coolly, somehow managing to keep a straight face as I cracked a grin.

"You know, we could just go up and tell them, like, right now." I suggested, watching Fang's face contort in an expression of horror, "Or, y'know, not that."

We both let out sighs of frustration at the same time. I was leaning towards Fang's first plan; not telling them. It had motsy. But the flock would obviously find out later, then pound us with questions relentlessly, be freaked out, or think that it's morally wrong for us to be together and kill one of us off... okay, maybe not the third, but the first was inevitable.

"Maybe we should hold off telling them for a while," I intoned, then shot him a look, "And _no_ public displays of affection in front of the flock."

He smiled, looking chagrined for even suggesting the idea, "Sounds good to me."

I dug my toes deeper into the sand, sighing in content at the warm feeling that met my toes as the sun began to heat up the small grains of sand.

I saw Fang looking at me curiously underneath my eyelashes as I began to brush sand off of my rolled-up (and now dry) jeans, and grinned at him. After removing most of the sand and shaking out my crazy hair for a second, I gripped the fabric of Fang's shirt at his chest and pulled him up with me as I stood, bringing my lips to his in a brief, sweet kiss before releasing him.

Fang grinned toothily (and a bit madly, if I do say so myself), making the sun shine a bit brighter over the horizon.

I returned the smile, but a little regretfully, "Come on, let's get back to the Flock."

Fang looked like he was about the protest, but just nodded his head and brought his lips to my cheek in one last peck before intertwining our hands.

He bent down for a second to grab both of our stiff and not-quite-dry-yet windbreakers and handed me mine, rolling his shoulders before spreading out his dark wings and giving my hand a quick squeeze before dropping it.

My hand still tingling from his hold, I watched him take off into the air. A huge _whoosh _of wind filled my ears as he beat his wings to take higher into the sky and, within seconds, he was dozens and dozens of feet above me.

Gripping my windbreaker solidly in one hand, I opened my tan wings with a sweep and, in one quick motion, jumped off of the warm sand and into the air, soaring up to meet the dark figure who was hovering in the sky and waiting for me.

"Hey," I greeted him, feeling as light-hearted as ever as he grinned back.

I looked back down at the horizon and saw the sun was almost half way over it, meaning the flock would be waking up right about now and-

...

Uh-oh...

Crap!

My eyes widened at my own stupidity, and I barely paying attention as Fang flew in front of me and looked at me worriedly.

"Iggy's still on watch," I whispered.

He would be wondering where Fang and I were. He'd been on watch for _hours_, and would definitely be unhappy about his lack of sleep, especially because we all had funky sleep patterns, this probably wouldn't help too much. Also, Angel had bugged me numerous times before about how she'd heard Iggy comment on Fang and me, and if Iggy would be Iggy, he'd have his suspicions about why Fang and I were gone so long, especially why we were alone.

His thoughts probably weren't rated G.

"Crap," Fang muttered, voicing my thoughts.

"Do you think he'll know?" I asked, already running through the awkward conversation in my mind.

Oh gods.

"We'll have to go and find out," Fang said, casting his gaze over the roof of the treetops, half-heartedly looking for our clearing.

"There," I said, spotting it before him and pointing to an empty spot in the trees.

Together in a nervous silence, we flew back to the clearing, low to the trees. As soon as the clearing neared, we dropped beneath the canopy of leaves and landed on the forest floor, wincing as a bunch of twigs snapped at our sudden landing.

I held up a finger to my lips, attempting to glare at the snapped twigs beneath my feet.

From where we both stood, I could see the still-dark clearing, the fire reduced to burning ashes. I could see the Flock lightly dozing around it, their eyes luckily still closed. Except one person was missing.

"_Nudge_!" I whisper-shouted, turning to look at Fang in horror.

Fang returned the look of horror to a place just over my shoulder, fear evident in his eyes… and I knew, right away, that something was behind me.

Ever so slowly and hesitantly, I inclined my head to look behind me, only to see the said mocha-skinned flock member standing right behind me, her arms crossed over her chest and her gaze expectant.

"Where were you!?" she demanded, bubbly enough to send a Glee Club member to shame, "What were you doing?"

This fate was far worse than Iggy.

Angel and Nudge also had their suspicions about us, moreso than Iggy.

And suddenly, I knew the first option was approaching; Nudge was going to barrel us relentlessly with questions.

"What happened?"

"Max, did Fang propose to you?"

"Oh my god, he didn't!?"

"Why ever not?"

"Nevermind, where were you? Somewhere _romantic_?

"Lemme guess, you kissed?"

She asked all this without letting us answer, grinning wildly. Then, she pouted and asked in a baby voice, just to torture us:

"Is that how babies are made?"

As our faces turned beet red, she burst into a hysterical laughter, causing some shuffling and moving in the clearing.

Fang and I exchanged looks, turning several different shades of red as Nudge's laughter continued as loud as ever. We quickly looked away and Fang hurried to cover Nudge's mouth.

"Shh!" I whispered in terror as I saw Iggy almost roll over Gazzy as he shuffled in his sleep, "They'll wake up!"

Nudge opened her mouth to reply, then realized that Fang's hand was restraining her from doing so, and promptly licked his palm, causing him to jump back in disgust.

"Gross!" he almost shouted, then turned to me and held out his hand to show me like a four-year-old, "Look what she did!"

"You brought it upon yourself," Nudge brooded, glaring at Fang as he wiped his hand on her sleeve.

I sighed, whispering furiously, "Guys, stop fighting! Nudge, you can't tell the others we were gone, we, uh, don't want them to know yet. We'll tell them later."

I could see Fang shooting me incredulous 'We-ARE?' looks from the corner of my eye.

I cringed as Nudge's eyes lit up, "So you guys really _are_ together?"

I saw Fang shoot me another 'Great-Look-What-You-Did-Now' look from beside me and I offered a shrug.

"Yes, Nudge," I sighed, "But promise not to tell..."

"What do I get in return?" she asked quietly, her eyes gleaming wickedly.

My face and posture radiated defeat as her eyes bore into mine, so I sighed, "Whatever you want..."

"I want you to tell me _everything_ that happened!" she demanded, leaning towards us with interest.

I looked back at the clearing and saw that Iggy had now actually managed to roll over Gazzy, causing Gazzy gasp in surprise and wake up, rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hands.

"Later tonight," I whispered, stepping back into the clearing with the two, sitting down and leaning against a tree.

"Okay," she agreed, looking a bit putout.

Fang sat down next to me and looked back at Nudge suspiciously, "Hey... why were you on watch?"

Nudge grinned sheepishly, "Iggy was getting tired, so I volunteered to take over! It's my first time! It was kind of boring, but still awesome. Oh, that reminds me... I told Iggy I'd tell him when you got back, should I tell him?"

"No!" I whispered, "Tell him you forgot to tell him when we got back... uh, tell him we got back just after he went to sleep, nothing important happened to us while we were gone."

"Stop talking so loud!" Gazzy piped up groggily from his spot on the ground, yawning and rubbing his stomach where Iggy had rolled over him.

"Sorry," I apologized, grimacing as butterflies filled my stomach as Fang rested his hand on my shoulder.

With his eyes still closed, Gazzy rose from his spot on the ground, stopped in front of Iggy and promptly kicked his side and causing Iggy to cry out in surprise.

"Ugh, what the heck?" Iggy demanded, wincing and clutching his side, glaring in Gazzy's general direction.

"You rolled over me," Gazzy stated bluntly, still groggy with sleep.

At all the sound of ruckus, Angel's blue eyes squeezed together for a quick second before slowly opening and scanning over the clearing. Her eyes ran over Iggy and Gazzy before settling on the three of us, her eyes scrunching up in confusion for a second as she began to read our minds.

Not wanting her to know my thoughts, I immediately began counting backward from 50 in French to confuse her (a little something I picked up on back when we had went to school with Anne).

__

Cinquante… Quarante-neuf… Quarante-huit… Quarante-sept… Quarante-six…

Her gaze fell off of me and onto Fang who looked like he was trying to not think, before finally settling on Nudge.

Nudge, shocked as Angel began to read her mind, instantly started to try to think about something else until Angel finally gave up.

Angel sighed and jumped to her feet, gently nudging Total and Akila who were both curled up around each other, causing Akila to raise her head (while Total slept on) and watch as Angel walked over to the three of us.

"Something happened," she stated, her eyes searching ours, "I'll find out what..."

Iggy interrupted her before she could continue, "So, where to next?"

Ignoring Angel's Bambi eyes as she tried to coax me into telling her_ what exactly_ had happened, I spoke up, "I know a place we could stay for a while before the _other_ voice forces us to attempt to save the world again..."

Gazzy looked at me with crestfallen eyes, "Right now?"

"Yeah," I smirked, "Right now. Now come on, U and A! It's not too far away."

Gazzy groaned in protest, Angel scrutinized my face suspiciously, Total wriggled in my arms, and Nudge looked like she might pee herself in excitement. In other words, it was quite a scene.

Noiselessly, I spread my wings and took off into the air, waiting until I was a few hundred feet before turning back to watch the flock raise to my level.

"So, where exactly is it?" Iggy asked, hovering in the air beside me and beating his wings to stay airborne.

"Over there," I explained, pointing to the huge lake where Fang and I had been last night (or rather, that morning).

"Oh, I SEE!" Iggy rolled his eyes sarcastically, gesturing at his eyes to emphasize his point.

"Oh yeah, right, just northeast of here," I said, having totally forgotten for a moment that Iggy was blind.

Iggy nodded and we all began to fly towards it, Fang coasting up next to me.

"You think Angel will find out?" he asked me, his voice lowered.

"Not unless we keep talking about it," I said sarcastically, reaching out to push him away jokingly.

"Find out what?" Angel asked sweetly (pssh, as if), innocently flying into the space between the two of us and shooting us both Bambi eyes.

"You'll find out soon enough," Fang said in a low voice, trying to be mysterious about it and scare her.

She shivered and stared at Fang in horror, "Who'd you murder?"

I cracked a grin at her attempt to read the impenetrable and impossible-to-understand Fang's mind.

'_Lissa_,' I answered her question mentally, _completely _joking.

Although she didn't seem to understand this and voiced my thoughts aloud to Fang.

"Fang, who's Lissa? Did Max murder her?" Angel asked hesitantly.

Fang looked at her smugly as Angel read his thoughts, her obsidian blue eyes searching his before widening.

"Really? She smacked her because she was jealous?"

My anger flared as I heard Angel speak and I glared at Fang furiously.

'_Actually, Angel, I think he's got it wrong... Fang tried to murder a guy named SAM because HE was jealous. Mmmhmm, true story,_' I thought to her, my eyes narrowed as I glared daggers at offensive bird-kid.

"Who's Sam, Fang?" Angel asked, looking at Fang.

There was a brief silence as Angel dove deeper into Fang's mind.

"He was an Eraser? And you were jealous of an Eraser? ... No, you weren't jealous... Max was jealous of Lissa? But she just said Sam-" Angel began, reading out thoughts as fast as we kept thinking back retorts.

"Max, are we going to land, or just fly over it?" Nudge asked hesitantly, looking below at the large expanse of water that we were nearly about to pass.

"Oh yeah, right," I said sheepishly, "Let's land!"

As we touched down onto the beach, I could still see the imprints our feet had made in the sand earlier that morning and immediatley felt disgusted. If I had gotten here five seconds earlier _before_ Angel had started yelling out thoughts, I would have been blushing and stumbling all over my self pathetically.

Now I was pretty sure this was just returning to the scene of the crime.

I shot Fang the bird, keeping silent, and began to walk to the tree line of the forest where I could still see where the thick underbrush of bushes and trees hid the large, but hopefully abandoned, Summer Cabin.

"Put me down!" Total demanded from his spot in my arms, wriggling as he watched Akila march in front of us freely.

I raised an eyebrow before dropping him, watching him scramble to his paws and stumble over himself pathetically in an vain attempt to catch up to Akila.

Hmm, he's really got it in for himself, puppy-dog love for the pooch.

Loser.

"Max, can we go swimming?" Nudge piped up, appearing out of thin-air right beside me, her eyes wide and begging.

Brooding, I turned the full-wrath of my sudden-bad mood on her.

"No."

She crossed her arms, snickering, "Do you _want_ me to tell the others your _little secret_?"

My eyes widened at the idea and I cast a worried glance back at Fang, my gaze turning to stone again as I saw him glowering at me.

I resisted the urge to pound on him a bit, instead ripping my eyes away from his and looking back at Nudge.

"Swimming it is!" I said, trying to act as if I wasn't majorly pissed right then.

"Is that the cabin?" Gazzy asked, pushing past Nudge and squinting through the trees.

"Yeah," Nudge beamed, looking about to explode as her face exploded with a (probably horrible) idea.

Appearing beside her, Angel innocently turned her Bambi-eyes onto full force.

"SHOPPING!" they squealed in unison, _both of them _now looking about ready to pee themselves in excitement.

"What, why!?" I demanded, my voice high and shrill in hysteria.

No, no, no, no, NO!

"We need bathing suits, duh," Angel beamed, looking like she wanted to jump for joy.

I made a high keening sound (that may be distinguished as a high-pitched groan if you listen hard enough), having a real forehead-slapper moment.

"Fine," I muttered quietly, but they heard me loud and clear.

"Eiiieeeeeeee!" Gazzy jumped for joy, mimicking Nudge's and Angel's shriek.

Beside him, Iggy cracked up and slumped Gazzy on the shoulder, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

I saw Fang's mouth quirk up at the sides, glowered at him again, and watch the grin drop back into a grimace.

Gee, I love the effect I have on men.

I sneered at him, feeling very childish as I stuck my tongue out at him and crossed my arms, this act causing him to chuckle darkly.

With plenty of unease, I directed my gaze back to Nudge and Angel, "So, when do you guys wanna go?"

Although I was expecting it, the words still struck me as a huge blow.

"Now!"

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**A/N: Okay, last chapter is coming up! Review who's POV you think the next chapter should be in, since I can't decide. Either Fang's, Max's, both, or both and little of the other flock member's?**


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